Women as social entrepreneurs in the hospitality and tourism industry: Does empowerment play a role?

This paper which is a work in progress presents a qualitative study exploring the nature, motivations and extent to which female entrepreneurs use their H&T businesses as platforms for engagement in various forms of social entrepreneurship (SE) leading to value creation, economic and community development. Although SE is seen as a key contributor to the creation and diversification of entrepreneurial activity, women empowerment and local economic development, there is limited research on the role of female H&T entrepreneurs in emerging non -western destinations. We focus on the following research questions: a) Can female entrepreneurs in H&T be considered as social entrepreneurs? b) How does the structure and organization of society shape the nature of female participation in SE? c) What are the challenges involved in mobilizing female entrepreneurs to effectively engage in SE? d) How does SE maximise value creation and higher levels of satisfaction for all participants? Concepts from women-owned H&T enterprises, SE and women empowerment are drawn upon. We argue that women are embedded in male dominated traditions/customs, community associations and government bureaucracies that may either empowered or dis-empower them. Using the case of Cameroon, we examine how embeddedness enhances the capacity of women to engage in SE in the H&T industry, thereby contributing to local economic development. Empirically we adopt a mixed methods approach using multiple case studies: a survey questionnaire, five focus groups meetings (two women -only, one male-only, and two mix of male and female entrepreneurs) and twenty-five in-depth interviews with selected female entrepreneurs (18), (non)governmental organisations (03) and beneficiaries (04) of social enterprise ventures between May 2014 and February 2015. The findings clarify the role of women in SE in H&T and policy implications for maximising social value creation through the participation of women in SE

Individual Reactions To Organizational Ethical Failures And Recovery Attempts: A Recovery Paradox?

The vast majority of behavioral ethical research focuses on the antecedents of unethical behavior. Consequently, questions involving the consequences of organizational unethical behavior remain largely unanswered. Therefore, extant business ethics research largely neglects the impacts of organizational unethical behavior on individuals. Moreover, questions involving what organizations can do to correct or recover from having engaged in unethical behavior as well as individual responses to those efforts are also mostly ignored. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of unethical activity on employees and explore organizations that have failed ethically and their attempts at recovery. This study explores two issues. First, how do employees react to organizational unethical behavior (OUB) and to what extent are those reactions dependent on contextual and individual factors? Second, to what extent can organizations recover from the negative impacts of ethical failure? More specifically, is it possible for organizations that fail in their ethical responsibilities to recover such that they are paradoxically better-off than their counterparts that never failed in the first place? To explore these issues I review, integrate and draw upon the ethical decision-making and service failure recovery literatures for theoretical support. Empirical testing included two studies. The first was a field study using survey data acquired from the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) in which over 29,000 participants were asked about their perceptions of ethics at work. Second, a supplemental field study was conducted in which 100 employees rated the characteristics of unethical acts (e.g. severity). Results revealed a negative direct effect of severity and controllability of the OUB on perceptions of organizational ethicality and a negative direct effect of controllability of the OUB on organizational satisfaction. Ethical context moderated the relationship between OUB controllability and perceived organizational ethicality. Partial support was found for the moderating effects of ethical context on the relationship between OUB severity and perceived organizational ethicality. Results also supported an ethical failure recovery paradox

Economia da Experiência como uma Filosofia Irracional nos Serviços Turísticos e Hoteleiros em Sistemas Socio-Econômicos em Transformação

The aim of this concepotual paper is to develop recommendations for the implementation of a strategy for marketing impressions in tourism and hospitality enterprises, thereby emphasizing the importance of the role of the impressions economy in the provision of tourist and hotel services in the context of the transformation of socio-economic systems. The strengthening of the concept of impressions economy is a certain reaction to the changing conditions in the service economy.The article analyzes a new type of relationship between the brand and the consumer - marketing of impressions, as well as the conditions that contribute to the successful functioning of tourism and hospitality enterprises, thereby emphasizing the fact that there is a mass process in the consumption of hotel and tourist services and the formation of certain value positions. Analyzing the problem of the role of impressions marketing in the provision of tourist services and hotel products in the context of the transformation of socio-economic systems, it was revealed that the concept of impressions economics at the beginning of the 21st century strengthens its position, which is manifested in the limitless nature of postmodern hedonism among modern consumers of the service sector.Este ensayo teórico se dedica a elaborar recomendaciones para la aplicación de una estrategia de comercialización de las impresiones en las empresas de turismo y hostelería, destacando así la importancia del papel de la economía de las impresiones en la prestación de servicios turísticos y hoteleros en el contexto de la transformación de los sistemas socioeconómicos. El fortalecimiento del concepto de economía de las impresiones es una cierta reacción a las condiciones cambiantes de la economía de los servicios. El artículo analiza un nuevo tipo de relación entre la marca y el consumidor - el marketing de impresiones, así como las condiciones que contribuyen al buen funcionamiento de las empresas turísticas y de hostelería, destacando así el hecho de que existe un proceso de masas en el consumo de servicios hoteleros y turísticos y la formación de determinadas posiciones de valor. Al analizar el problema del papel del marketing de las impresiones en la prestación de servicios turísticos y productos hoteleros en el contexto de la transformación de los sistemas socioeconómicos, se reveló que el concepto de economía de las impresiones a principios del siglo XXI refuerza su posición, que se manifiesta en el carácter ilimitado del hedonismo posmoderno entre los consumidores modernos del sector de los servicios.O objetivo deste ensaio teórico é desenvolver recomendações para a implementação de uma estratégia de marketing de impressões em empresas de turismo e hotelaria, enfatizando assim a importância do papel da economia das impressões na prestação de serviços turísticos e hoteleiros no contexto da transformação dos sistemas socioeconômicos. O reforço do conceito de economia das impressões é uma certa reação à mudança das condições na economia dos serviços. O artigo analisa um novo tipo de relação entre a marca e o consumidor - marketing de impressões, bem como as condições que contribuem para o bom funcionamento das empresas de turismo e hospitalidade, enfatizando assim o fato de haver um processo de massa no consumo de serviços hoteleiros e turísticos e a formação de certas posições de valor. Analisando o problema do papel do marketing de impressões na prestação de serviços turísticos e de produtos hoteleiros no contexto da transformação dos sistemas socioeconômicos, revelou-se que o conceito de economia de impressões no início do século XXI reforça a sua posição, que se manifesta na natureza ilimitada do hedonismo pós-moderno entre os consumidores modernos do setor dos serviços

Service Quality and Customer Loyalty in a Post-Crisis Context. Prediction-Oriented Modeling to Enhance the Particular Importance of a Social and Sustainable Approach

Research into the influence of service quality on customer loyalty has typically focused on confirming isolated direct causal influences regarding particular dimensions of quality, usually undertaken in the context of positive, firm-customer relations. The present study extends analysis of these factors through a new lens. First, the study was undertaken in a market context following a crisis that has had far-reaching consequences for customers’ relational behaviors. We explore the case of the Spanish banking industry, a sector that accurately reflects these new relational conditions, including a rising demand for more socially responsible banking. Second, we propose a holistic model that combines the effects of four key factors associated with service quality (outcome, personnel, servicescape and social qualities). We also apply an innovative predictive methodological technique using partial least squares (PLS) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) that enables us not only to determine the direct causal effects among variables, but also to consider different scenarios in which to predict customer loyalty. The results highlight the role of outcome and social qualities. The novelty of the social qualities factor helps to underscore the importance of social, ethical and sustainable practices to customer loyalty, although personnel and servicescape qualities must also be present to improve the predictive capability of service quality on loyalty

Shedding Light on the Dark Side of the Organization: Frontline Employees’ Perception of Workplace Incivility

PhD in Social Science with specialization in Service Leadership, International Business & Hospitality ManagementGiven the different norms across cultures, industries, and organizations, every workplace accepts a number of shared moral understandings as to its own respect norms among the members. However, in today’s global workplace, behavior has more nuances due to the speed and complexity of interpersonal interactions. Workplace incivility is a notable example of a unique form of interpersonal mistreatment in the organization with its low intensity and ambiguous intention of harming the target. With the aim of contributing to the current knowledge, the main purpose of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of workplace incivility perception among frontline employees in the service industry context. Turnover, on the other hand, is a big issue in the tourism and hospitality sectors that results in excessive costs for recruiting and training service employees. As an important source of job stress caused by negative interpersonal interactions, workplace incivility could be a critical antecedent of employees’ turnover. Therefore, the other purpose of this thesis is to shed more light on the employees’ responses to workplace incivility in terms of turnover intentions. Moreover, the current thesis is also aimed to investigate the role of a positive working environment, as environmental factors, as well as individual differences, as personal factors, in the perception of workplace incivility and its effect on turnover intention. This thesis consists of one systematic review and meta-analysis study, one quantitative empirical paper, and one exploratory paper. Firstly, in line with the purpose of the thesis, a deep review of the workplace incivility literature, in twenty years period, was conducted to provide an early meta-analysis of the relationship between employees’ perceptions of workplace incivility and their turnover intentions in the first paper. This paper investigated the consistency of the incivility–turnover relationship across different sources of workplace incivility (i.e., customer, coworker, supervisor incivility), as well as incivility measures, industries, and countries. The results from the first paper confirm a significant positive relationship between workplace incivility (regardless of the source) and employees’ turnover intention. Following up on this result, the second paper aims to examine to what extent the working environment can affect frontline employees’ perception of workplace incivility and their turnover intentions in the hotel and restaurant industry in Norway. In this quantitative paper, the effect of a perceived caring climate, as an environmental factor, on employees’ turnover intention through a serial multiple mediation model including coworker incivility and emotional exhaustion. The result of the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis reveals that the perception of caring climate in the workplace has not only a direct negative effect on turnover intention but also has indirect effects through a reduction in both coworker incivility and emotional exhaustion. This result emphasizes the important role of environmental factors in the workplace (i.e., caring climate) in employees’ perceptions of incivility and their responses in terms of turnover intention. Given the same sample set, the third paper is an exploratory study that looks at individual differences as personal factors in the perception of workplace incivility, social supports at work, and intention to turnover through applying cluster analysis. Specifically, this study explores if it is possible to identify distinct groups of employees that perceive and behave differently from other groups. The results of K-means cluster analysis and one-way ANOVA indicate three different clusters/groups of frontline employees with different demographic and behavioral profiles. Taken together, the findings of the present thesis provide valuable insights into our knowledge about the incivility–turnover relationship in service work environments, as well as a better understanding of the role of environmental and personal factors in such a relationship

The Contaminating Effects of Building Instrumental Ties: How Networking Can Make Us Feel Dirty

To create social ties to support their professional or personal goals, people actively engage in instrumental networking. Drawing from moral psychology research, we posit that this intentional behavior has unintended consequences for an individual's morality. Unlike personal networking in pursuit of emotional support or friendship, and unlike social ties that emerge spontaneously, instrumental networking in pursuit of professional goals can impinge on an individual's moral purity—a psychological state that results from viewing the self as clean from a moral standpoint—and thus make an individual feel dirty. We theorize that such feelings of dirtiness decrease the frequency of instrumental networking and, as a result, work performance. We also examine sources of variability in networking-induced feelings of dirtiness by proposing that the amount of power people have when they engage in instrumental networking influences how dirty this networking makes them feel. Three laboratory experiments and a survey study of lawyers in a large North American law firm provide support for our predictions. We call for a new direction in network research that investigates how network-related behaviors associated with building social capital influence individuals' psychological experiences and work outcomes

Ethical Leadership in the U.S.: How Can Business Schools Help to Build and Maintain an Atmosphere of Trust in Business Leadership?

Corporate scandals have rocked the foundations of many corporations in America. Those affected directly and indirectly, as well as those who do not want to be the next front page headline. This paper looks at the fact that there is a problem. How did it get this way and what can be done to turn the situation around? Congress reacted with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and additions to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations. Corporations are developing codes of ethics and ethical training programs like never before to try to head off potential liabilities. Business schools that once felt ethics training should be left to Sunday School are now developing mandatory courses on ethics or are instilling ethical training throughout their entire curriculums. Are these methods going to be effective